A sweet, warm and smooth sounding vintage Blüthner baby grand famous for its intimacy and its singing tone.

The Instrument

Galaxy II’s 1929 GERMAN BABY GRAND is based on a Blüthner Model 150, built in 1929. The Blüthner piano company has been manufacturing the Europe’s finest pianos in their factory in Leipzig, Germany since 1853. By 1885, the company was the largest European piano manufacturer. Numerous royals, composers, conductors, artists and performers owned Blüthner pianos, including Brahms, Bartok, Debussy, Tchaikovsky and Wagner.

Personality

This special vintage Blüthner baby grand has a sweet and warm character to offer. With its smooth singing tone it is a great fit for Pop, Jazz and classical pieces, which are in need of an intimate and very personal timbre.

The Recording

We recorded the 1929 GERMAN BABY GRAND at Hansahaus Studios with a set of Neumann vintage microphones like the KM53, M49 and the legendary U47, emphasizing the smooth vintage tonal character.

The Interface

The 1929 GERMAN BABY GRAND’s extensive tweaking options make it perfect for all contemporary productions: Control the levels of the pedals, damper, string and hammer sounds. Adjust the timbre with the Color knob. Turn the Dynamic knob to change the dynamic range. The Lid control adjusts brightness. And built-in effects allow you to you fine-tune the sound without ever leaving the interface.

Realism

The 1929 GERMAN BABY GRAND brings a true piano feel to life. Over 2,000 individual samples and 13 velocity zones allow each note to come through with stunning realism. With mechanical and string 'noises' being a main part of a piano's realism, the GERMAN BABY GRAND also features the 'dying string' release sounds, the hammer noises and the pedal, damper and vibrant string noises, all individually adjustable.

Timbre

With the 1929 GERMAN BABY GRANDS's color knob you can change the tone color or timbre from soft to hard by readjusting the sample mapping. It's a dynamic way of mapping, while balancing the volume differences between softer and harder samples. As a result of turning the 'Color' knob to the right, you will hear the piano sound 'harder', crispier, and with 'more attack'. Turning it to the left it'll sound 'warmer', 'softer' and with less 'attack'.

Resonance

We sampled the resonating strings with the sustain pedal up and down separately, enabling an individual adjustment of 1929 GERMAN BABY GRAND's resonance using the 'Resonance' and the 'Overtones' controls.